Fabric Leaf Tree

Tristin shared with me a wonderful idea the other day. She thought that it would be fun if we both created a mini collection of trees adorned with various materials. Um, yes! What a craft genius she is! They will all be fairly simple so that anyone can create them. *Side note: if you do happen to make one, please send us a picture! We would love to see your work. :)

The first creation of the saga is this beautiful decorative tree embellished with colorful fabric leaves. This is a great table topper for a wedding, baby shower, bridal shower, or birthday. It is also perfect Easter/Spring decoration for around the house.

Here's What You Need:

Fabric Stiffener - I use Stiffy's
Floral Wire - At least 24 gauge
Fabric Scraps
Branches

Extra Supplies: Scissors, Newspaper, Plastic cup, Saran Wrap (not pictured)

Here's What You Do:

Start by cutting out a lot of leaves. You can use a chipboard or cardboard template to make it easier and more consistent. Make sure you cut out an extra leaf for the back of each one. I cut out 40 leaves (so 80 total) which sounds like a lot, but it didn't take too much time.

Take your floral wire and cut out 40 strips (or however many leaves you're doing) 8"-10" long. Set these aside in a pile that is within reach.

Here comes the messy (but super fun) part! Cover your work space with newspaper, and right beside your work space lay down some newspaper with a large sheet of saran wrap on top. Pour a small amount of fabric stiffener into your plastic cup. Take a leaf and its back leaf and dip both into the fabric stiffener. Remove the excess stiffener by pressing and smoothing the fabric with your fingers. Do not wring!

Lift the top leaf and place a piece of wire in the center in between the two leaves. The fabric stiffener will hold the wire in place fairly well (for decorative purposes), but if you want it to be more secure, dab a little glue on the wire before pressing the top leaf back down.

Press the top leaf down on top of the wire so that it forms a sort of "vein" (like in real leaves). This was Tristin's idea too, and it looks great! Let your leaves dry for a couple of hours. I left mine alone overnight just to be sure.

And now for the fun part! Start with one leaf and wrap its floral wire around a branch to secure it in place. Decorate the rest of your tree to your liking. Use a more natural pattern like the branch pictured above...

...or make them funky& curly. The floral wire is extremely malleable and can help you attain almost any look.

Stay tuned for the next one in the series. By the end we're going to have a freakin' forest!
What do you think the next tree is going to be?